Workfare: A Connection You Weren’t Expecting

 Workfare: A Connection You Weren’t Expecting

In the early 19th century, in the small English town of Speenhamland, the local magistrates had a rather generous idea: they decided that no one should starve just because the going wage was too low. So they topped up workers’ incomes with public funds, depending on the price of bread. Nice idea, right?

Well, it turned out to be a disaster.

Employers, realizing they could pay less, did exactly that. Wages plummeted. Public spending exploded. And by the time the Poor Law Reformers of 1834 got hold of it, they decided the best solution was to make poverty so uncomfortable that only the truly desperate would ask for help.

Fast forward a couple hundred years and here we are—different era, same principle, just with a few more buzzwords and a lot more spreadsheets.

Today, we call it workfare.

Now, the theory behind workfare is seductively simple: rather than just giving people money when they’re unemployed, we make them “active”—send them to training sessions, job coaching, unpaid internships, maybe even community cleanup. Keep them busy. Build character. Motivate them.

Except... what if they were already motivated? What if the jobs just weren’t there?

In practice, workfare turns out to be less about lifting people up and more about managing them. Think about it: when automation, outsourcing, and gig platforms have made stable employment scarce, the state doesn’t ask why the economy no longer supports everyone. It asks why you, the unemployed person, aren’t trying hard enough.

It’s not that society has failed you—it’s that you haven’t been sufficiently activated.

And that’s the trick. Like Speenhamland, workfare quietly props up low wages by subsidizing poverty. It tells employers: “Go ahead, offer that zero-hour contract—we’ll make sure the worker shows up.” It disciplines the unemployed into behaving as if they’re still in a full-employment world, even when everyone knows we’re not.

And here's the kicker—just like the Speenhamland system, the modern workfare state ends up subsidizing capital, not labor.

So what started with an idea to help people eat bread... ends with bureaucrats deciding how many hours of unpaid labor you need to qualify for your monthly assistance.

Because the more things change—well, you know the rest.

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